Yahoo! News:
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates (news - web sites) announced on Monday a $100 million grant to battle HIV (news - web sites)/AIDS (news - web sites) in India, which has the world's second largest number of victims of the deadly disease.

The announcement came as Gates, sporting a red Hindu "tika" mark on his forehead, began a four-day trip to India with a visit to an AIDS clinic in the Indian capital, where he talked with HIV-positive patients.

The donation -- the largest single-country grant by his charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- would provide better access to HIV prevention measures for truck drivers, migrant workers and other mobile people who are seen as vulnerable to HIV infections.

According to official figures, India has four million HIV-positive cases, the highest after South Africa. But some reports estimate the number of people afflicted in India could burgeon to 20 million by 2010.

"Mobile populations are very much at risk on AIDS and on spreading AIDS in the general population," Gates told a news conference. He said his foundation would also help remove the social stigma attached to AIDS in India.

Activists say Indians with HIV have been thrown out of their jobs or homes and even refused treatment by doctors.

Indian Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha will chair a board that will administer the anti-AIDS program, Gates said.

Helene Gayle, director of the foundation's HIV program, told Reuters the $100 million was an initial amount with no timeframe for spending. The latest contribution brings to $600 million the foundation has allocated so far on its anti-AIDS program, she added.

Earlier, Gates, received a traditional Indian welcome, as he met patients suffering from HIV/AIDS at a Naz Foundation center. The foundation is a volunteer group working to heighten awareness about the disease.

He sat cross-legged on a mattress listening to volunteers.

DEFENDS CRITICISM

Gates, the richest man in the world and whose company dominates the computer software market, will also meet leaders, businessmen and technology experts during the visit.

A government spokesman said Gates met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (news - web sites) and briefed him about his charity's efforts to spread AIDS awareness in India, and received assurances of government support.

Gates defended criticism that his foundation had upset people by backing the estimate that India was heading toward 20 million HIV cases. He said past estimates had proved to be low.

"There is no doubt that India has a serious problem on this front," he said.

Gates, on his third Indian visit in five years, is also expected to announce that Microsoft is stepping up its Indian software involvement, a source close to the company told Reuters.

Some 20 percent of Microsoft's engineers are of Indian origin and Gates said in a recent interview the company took a special interest in the country because of that.

Microsoft has a software center in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, one of the few outside the United States.

Gates is due to meet Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who is keen to harness software for use by India's masses.

If I had as much money as he did....I'd donate money to fight AIDS too. It's a nice gesture, nonetheless. AIDS funding is suprisingly limited and they need every dollar as research is ever so expensive nowadays.

Of course...he'd donate more if he HAD AIDS...(twists imaginary mustache and snickers) ...just a wicked little thought.

Twelve

11-12-2002, 05:45 AM

100 million? Is that it? Wait a week and he'll get that money back again(grin)
Nah, but now that he's doing this, other countries are going to expect some donations too. Bill Gates needs to visit Africa now. Heck, he can singly handedly solve the economic problems in Argentina!!

12

Alucard

11-12-2002, 12:23 PM

Actually, mistah Bill has been giving millions to charities for YEARS. A really long time. He's not as bad as people make him out to be. They're just jealous of his success and billions of dollars. Yeah he cheated a little to get there, but he's helping people along the way. People he'll never know. And thats a big gold star to him in my book.

ATMA

11-12-2002, 02:16 PM

Originally posted by Alucard
Actually, mistah Bill has been giving millions to charities for YEARS. A really long time. He's not as bad as people make him out to be. They're just jealous of his success and billions of dollars. Yeah he cheated a little to get there, but he's helping people along the way. People he'll never know. And thats a big gold star to him in my book.

mmmm kinda reminds me how the drug cartels works in Colombia, helping the villages out with their dirty money to get support! And by doing this Bill will sure gets some support or people will look different at him! What's up Bill trying to clean up your image? Kay i'll cut you some slag, nice of you to do this (see it's allready working) :D

Kid0_oIcarus

11-12-2002, 02:57 PM

Well I still won't buy an Xbox so there. :p

Anyway, even when Bill tries to do good, bad things happen... see here then..

Ah.. good ole The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28031.html)

Kicking off a visit to India today Bill Gates may have expected (in the words of the New York Times "a fawning group of state chief ministers and federal political leaders lining up outside his hotel suites, waiting for a chance to meet with the world's richest man." Instead, he may have flown into a storm over AIDS scaremongering.

According to an Agence France Presse report in the Hindustan Times, Indian Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha has lashed out at both Gates and US Ambassador Robert Blackwill, accusing them of spreading AIDS panic. In Madras last Wednesday Blackwill delivered a speech on AIDS, in which he cited a US report predicting that AIDS could effect 25 million people in India by 2010 if it is not checked. The most recent Indian report, from March, says 3.97 million people are HIV positive.

Says Sinha: "What do we achieve by saying in public that we will have 25 million people with AIDS in the coming years? Every year we update the information on the HIV/AIDS scene in the country. And we are surprised by the figures being cited freely."

What has this got to do with Bill? Well, in addition to getting a lid on the disturbing-sounding Linux India Initiative, he's on the donation trail, as Ambassador Blackwill said in his speech: "In the area of private-public partnerships, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has an active program of HIV/AIDS prevention around the world. Mr. Gates will visit India next week in connection with that work."

So Blackwill's implementation of the public-private partnership has unfortunately associated Gates with a bust-up with the Health Minister. Weirdly, one of the sections of Blackwill's speech is headed "The Road Ahead." But that just has to be a coincidence. ?

Alucard

11-12-2002, 04:14 PM

Sinha should probably shut his mouth before saying dumb things. If figures are there then theres a reason. They aren't doing a good enough job to keep Aids at bay. The clown should be happy with the extra money since it means better funding for 'health'.

And comparing Bill to drug dealers is a little harsh. Drugs screw us up and kill our children. Win98/XP lets us get online to play games and download porn, and sometimes on rare occasions kills our computer anyway. So its all good. Go Bill. Just make me a bloody OS without so many bugs please.

ATMA

11-12-2002, 04:28 PM

oh no no no ..i was comparing the "tactics" guess i didn't explain it very well .mah bad!

True... can't compete with porn! Hentaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaai!

Well i did gave him some credit, it's great to see him do this. Guess he's not evil afterall he just cheated his way to the top.. that's all! :D

Twelve

11-13-2002, 06:01 AM

Originally posted by Alucard
He's not as bad as people make him out to be. They're just jealous of his success and billions of dollars.

Yup. I tend to agree, actually. A sign of success is having enemies. He has given sooo much of his money, true...but he can still give more, actually. I mean, he can honestly solve all the whole money problem in Argentina...I'm serious!

12

Healin

11-13-2002, 08:37 AM

True but no one in a proper state of mind would do that. I wouldn't give my fortune away if it could save Argentina. I rather use them for games.

Guess for Gate's case he would use they to furnish his island. I mean add a waterfall or something. Gee... wish I had a place to put my own waterfall... :P Imagine the babes swimming there...

Kid0_oIcarus

11-15-2002, 05:36 PM

Props given where props are due. And props are due for ATMA.
Wise grasshoppa.

The Register
Gates' freebies build support for MS in Indian governments
By John Lettice
Posted: 15/11/2002 at 11:31 GMT

Bill Gates' schmooze-cruise of India is working, reports an Associated Press eye-witness. Gates has been "handing out so many freebies to India's federal and state governments in the last three days that talk of open-source software [has] started annoying government officials."

Step forward annoyed Karnataka state information secretary Vivek Kulkarni, who says: "You should not make accusations against a company because it is successful." Richard Stallman was in India earlier in the month arguing that India should treat free Windows like free cigarettes, but he does not seem to have been entirely successful. Karnataka's state government in Bangalore has just been given free .NET software to be used for e-government systems, and according to AP promptly asked for more money in order to computerise the state.

Gates also announced a project to provide broadband for state schools, and provided a possible justification for Microsoft's largesse. Microsoft's prices could be "dramatically lower" for socially relevant projects.

This perhaps is intended to provide some moral underpinning for Microsoft's recent and growing use of 'donateware' to build its presence in government. Not, of course, that the donateware programme is confined to the developing world - au contraire, and if people are willing to take the freebies, the only thing rivals can do is try to out-freebie Bill.

The Indian tour has not been without its surreal moments. When we saw "Gates honored with big condom" on CNN last night, we assumed they'd been hacked. But no, it's there in all its splendour at Reuters, which originated the story, and Bill apparently smiled when he saw the giant air-filled condom in India's rising technology hub of Hyderabad.

Words don't entirely fail us, but frankly, who needs them? ?

See article for the links.

folken001

01-10-2003, 07:30 PM

Actually, if anyone still cares about this, India rejected Bill Gates' offer. Why? Bill Gates tried to tell India what to do and I think that pissed its Government off.

I don't have the link but I believe you can find it if you try hard.

Twelve

01-11-2003, 07:05 AM

Yo Folky what's up. I visit VGR everynow and then, and I see the AoE is still fighting the good fight. (lol)
What, was Bill Gates trying to take over India now too, by giving them money? That would be hilarious. Maybe he wants to buy a country one day, or rule one, since America won't let him do it(grin)